Greetings!

Dearest Friends and Family!!!
Odessa starts to get hot this time of year, but the hottest season is still to come. One can see more and more tourists coming and staying in Odessa to enjoy the beach and the beautiful city. Along with that the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful time of ministry. Well, let me share the joys which the Lord allowed us to experience with Him this past month.

Current Matters

The highlight of the month:
Let me start off with a story that has been a highlight and huge personal encouragement to me. In the previous e-mail I have mentioned that the Lord brought a wonderful young man into my life to disciple, his name is Vanya. Vanya has been sharing the Gospel with pretty much everyone God would send his way. His neighbors weren’t an exception. It is a young family husband, wife and a child. The husband and wife are in their early thirties; both of them are into drinking. They would listen to Vanya, but the reality of God would not come through to them. The other day Vanya saw the wife in tears. When he asked what was wrong she said that either her husband or their landlord stole the money she has been saving for her child to buy some things. It was around $150 -$200. Vanya sat down and shared the Gospel with her once again, sharing how much she cost Christ and about His plan for her life. She did not want to make any decision yet but she was willing to listen and did not mind Vanya prayed for her and her situation. When Vanya went back to his place he prayed “Lord, show her Your power, show her Your power!”. The next day he saw her as happy as one can be, he asked what had happened and she said that she went outside and found $300 just lying on the corner of the street! God did show His power! Please join us in prayer for this lady (her name is Natasha) that being a witness of God’s strength and love she would respond properly to the love of Christ and His call.
Vanya will be leaving Odessa shortly for the summer. He is from Russia where he will be spending the time of holiday with his family and ministering at his Church. He is so excited to get back in order to minister there to the local body of believers and to share the Gospel with his friends who aren’t believers yet, who he used to spend a lot of time with. I will miss him! Ministering to him is God’s blessing to me and a privilege.

Current Matters

Upward Soccer Ministry:

Upward soccer ministry has finished. It has been a good time of ministering to the local community through participating in their needs and sharing the Gospel with them. It is sad that hardly any parents participated. But that just reflects the current state of the families in Ukraine and the interest they show in the lives of their children…it is very sad, but we know that it is through Christ the real change can occur. So, we keep sharing Christ with those families the Lord sends our way. Upward soccer ministry has been a wonderful opportunity for our young Church to experience what ministry is. They have learned a lot and are excited about more opportunities to serve. We are looking at having Upward soccer ministry again next year.

Current Matters

Evangelizing at the local school:
God has opened another door for the Church to minister at. We have been allowed to come to school 72 (school in our neighborhood) and participate in their summer day camp. Teachers know us pretty well and they don’t mind us sharing the Gospel with the kids after we are done playing with them. It is a miracle because it is illegal to share the Gospel at the public schools in Ukraine. Some other teachers just come and drop off kids with us (during the time when they are supposed to be with them). It is a bit of a challenge because sometimes we get over 60 kids, but then more kids will get to hear the Gospel. This week was the last week of this camp. (Pictures to come soon)

Current Matters

Discipleship:
The Discipleship has been going wonderfully for both Anneke and I. The Lord has blessed us with people who want to grow and to know the Lord better. One of the men I disciple asked me to meet with his classmate because she had some questions about life, purpose of her being here etc, what a wonderful opportunity it was. So, we met and shared the Gospel with her, explaining who God is, His plan for her life, who is she and what is the purpose of her being here. It has been a really exciting meeting, this unbelieving girl wants to get together more and learn more about God. A friend who I disciple got so excited about this time when we could share the Gospel with this gal that he wants to learn how he can reach out to the unbelievers better. Anneke has been having wonderful experiences this past month as well, seeing growth in the gals she works with. Over all we feel so blessed by the Lord when we look at the people He gave us. They want to learn, they want to serve and they LOVE GOD with all of their hearts, minds and souls. God has blessed us with precious jewels!

Current Matters

Reaching out to the local community:
In less than a week (the 30th of June) we will have 32 Americans arrive to Odessa (Royal Servants) to help us reach out to the community over here. They will be staying in Odessa for 4 weeks total. We are excited to see what the Lord will do. We have never done it before in this manner, so it should be interesting.

Answered Prayers

Answered Prayers:
*Please continue to pray for the Mikael’s and Anneke’s health
Thank you so much for praying! Both Mikael and Anneke are feeling well. Mikael is kicking a lot! It is wonderful to see and feel him kick! He seems to be a very active little boy.

*Please pray for us as we move to the new apartment, that all will go smoothly.
The move to a new apartment went well. Lot’s of guys came to help, it went really smooth and nice. We are very grateful.

*Please pray for the summer camps, we still need people to come and join us in this ministry.
Camps are filling up slowly but surely. It seems like the Lord is bringing a very nice group of campers together. We are so excited to see what he will do at camp!

*Please continue to pray for the one on one meetings we have, that we would be His tool in the lives of those we serve.
Thanks a ton for praying! It has been a true joy and a tremendous blessing to see what the Lord has been doing in the lives of those whom He has entrusted us to serve to. We
have no words to describe how blessed and encouraged we are.

*Please pray for the new place to meet for the Church. We have pretty much outgrown the apartment we were getting together at by now.
Thanks again for praying! The Lord has blessed us with a nice place to meet. Our Church members like it and so do we.

Current Prayer Requests

Please pray:
•Please pray for more campers for the summer camps. Especially for the family camp campers, we need more families to come.
•Please pray for the time with the Royal Servants (the 32 Americans who come) that it would be an effective time of ministry through which the Lord would be glorified.
•Arkadiy’s family came to visit. Please also pray for the time with them. They are unbelievers (except for Arkadiy’s little sister) and are in need of Christ. Please pray that we would shine His light to them and for the Lord to turn their hearts to Himself. (Please note, in the picture of Ira and dad, the beverage is "KVAS" which is similar to what rootbeer is)
•Please continue to pray for the health of Anneke and little Mikael.

Greetings!

We have had a very busy and exciting month and we are thrilled to share with you with what the Lord has been doing in our lives and ministries this past month.

Looking back at May:

Discipleship Seminar:
The discipleship seminar that Arkadiy was asked to teach was rescheduled and occurred on the 10^th of May instead of the 26^th of April. It was not that bad as it gave Arkadiy and Zhenya (Missionary Training School intern) more time to prepare. Zhenya had been through the discipleship course that Arkadiy taught while at training and Arkadiy thought it would be a good possibility for his growth to ask him to teach 20% of the material Arkadiy would use at this seminar. Zhenya was a little bit anxious at first but after going through the material together again, he was able to prepare for it and was excited to use this opportunity. He did a great job! Praise the Lord. The seminar went well. Students were excited to learn and that was a blessing to see. It is always wonderful to work with people who want to grow spiritually and who want to be better stewards of what the Lord has given them especially when it comes to discipling others and teaching them everything that Christ has taught them while becoming fathers (mothers) to them.

Looking back at May:

Vanya:
God has brought a wonderful young man into Arkadiy’s life named Vanya. He is committed to serving Him, has a hunger for God and is very teachable. We discussed the opportunity of getting together and helping one another grow. He has a huge potential and Arkadiy is grateful that the Lord has given him this opportunity to disciple Vanya. Arkadiy offered Vanya to join them and attend the seminar on discipleship that they were teaching at, and he agreed. It was great to have him with us and he learned a lot! We had a wonderful time of worshiping God together through singing and sharing His Word on the way to the seminar location and on the way back to Odessa (the village where we taught is about 2 hours away driving). It has truly been a wonderful time. After we came back Vanya walked up to Arkadiy and whispered into his ear: “If you will go and serve somewhere again, please take me with you!”. The Lord has a wonderful way of encouraging us as we do His work. Vanya and Arkadiy are getting together on a weekly basis now to help one another change and become more like Christ.

Looking back at May:

Upward Ministry:
Upward ministry is also going well. The Lord has been bringing around 15 kids each week. The kids seem to enjoy playing soccer a lot, and not only kids , the team involved in planning and running the ministry is excited to play soccer as well. It is also a wonderful opportunity for our Church members to share the Gospel with the kids and to serve them through organizing and running the Saturday Upward event. We want to thank each of you as well for being part of this ministry through prayer! We could not do it without you!!!!!

Looking back at May:

Orphanage Trip

































On the 16th of May we took a group of young men and women from Church to the orphanage in Pridnestrovye (Transnistria). It has been a good trip. It is wonderful to see how the church members grasp the idea of serving these kids more and more with every trip. They have done a wonderful job of loving those kids and sharing the eternal message with them. Being there was a good opportunity to spend some time and encourage two of our interns Lesya and Marina. They will be serving at this orphanage for another 2.5 months. It had been two and a half weeks of their service in the orphanage when we arrived. It was good to debrief with them and to encourage them. They are doing a wonderful work there, teaching the Bible to the kids and sharing the Gospel with the staff of the orphanage (most of them are unbelievers).

Current Matters

Wedding in Romania:
On the 21st of May Arkadiy left for Romania to attend Florin and Avery’s wedding. Avery has been serving with us since 2005. Florin joined our ministry in 2006. He is originally from Romania and Arkadiy has been discipling him since 2006. While in Romania Arkadiy spent time with Cristi, pastor of the Church Florin belongs to in Romania. He is a dear friend of ours. We met while serving in Uganda, Africa. Arkadiy came back home on Monday. Unfortunately Anneke was not able to go with Arkadiy on this trip due to the difficulties she experiences with traveling and the lack of relations between Moldova and South Africa. The Moldovian consul doesn’t know what to do with Anneke because there is apparently a lack of international agreements between the two countries.

Current Matters

One-on-one Discipleship:
One-on-one discipleship has been going great! Arkadiy started meeting with two more guys and both of them have great potential! Arkadiy is really grateful to the Lord for letting him serve to them. Anneke has been approached by a girl from our Church and the girl asked her to disciple her. We are grateful for the opportunities the Lord provides.

Current Matters

New Apartment!!! :)
God has blessed us and helped us find a two room apartment. It is not far away from where we live at the moment. So, now we are in the process of packing and getting ready to move out of our place. It will be sad to leave it; it was a wonderful place for us for the last 4 years. But now we have another family member joining us and thus we’ll need more room.

Current Matters

It's a....
We went for an ultrasound on the 18th of May and they told us it is a BOY! Somehow we knew that it will be a boy, but it was still nice to know. We are really excited about it. His name will be Mikael (we are still working on the spelling). Which is Michael in Russian. The baby is healthy and so is his mommy. We are so grateful for the Lord’s protection over both of them.

Answered Prayers

Answered prayers
*We are hoping to move to a bigger place so that we could at least fit in a cradle. Please pray for God to provide the right place for the right price.
God has provided a place for us and we like it. It costs only $30 more than what we were paying. And it has two rooms instead of just one! :) We are very grateful.
*Please pray for the preparations for the Discipleship seminar.
The seminar went great!
*Please continue to pray for Anneke and the baby’s health.
Both Anneke and the Mikael are doing great!
*Please pray for wisdom with setting the priorities in ministry and time management.
Please continue to pray for that.

Current Prayer Requests

Please Pray:
*Please continue to pray for the Mikael and Anneke’s health
*Please pray for the summer camps, we still need people to come and join us in this ministry.
*Please continue to pray for the one on one meetings we have, that we would be His tool in the lives of those we serve.
*Please pray for the new place to meet for the Church. We have pretty much outgrown the apartment we were getting together at by now.